1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a heating device. It has a primary use of providing supplemental heat to livestock and pets. Alternatively, the invention also relates to a heated storage shelf for the storage of paints and other liquids in shop areas to eliminate the necessity to heat the entire storage area during cold weather.
The livestock industry has long been faced with the problem of providing inexpensive supplemental heat to their new born animals. This problem is particularly severe in hog industry in which the sow's body temperature is relatively high and pigs are farrowed into a cold temperature. Their wet skin together with the substantial change in their environment often causes shock and a high death loss. To limit shock and the death loss, hog farmers have long provided supplemental heat to new born pigs. Originally, this supplemental heat was provided by heat lamps which used excessive electrical energy, heated the entire environment, and did nothing to preclude the concrete floors of farrowing barns from conducting the heat away from the pigs. In addition, craftsman using adhesives, paints and other liquids have faced the problem of having these liquids freeze when stored in unheated shops in the wintertime. To avoid this problem, the entire shop area had to be heated, or alternatively, the liquids had to be moved to a warm environment.
2. Related Art
In the 1970's, applicant invented the first commercially successful heating pad for the hog industry. This invention was licensed to Osborne Industries, Inc. of Osborne, Kans. These heating pads became widely known as the STANFIELD.TM. heat pads. They comprised a fibre glass mat on which was placed a heating wire in a serpentine pattern with the entire unit being bonded into an integral unit by thermosetting resins which were either sprayed or injected into an expensive mold cavity. Such heat pads made according to my prior invention are depicted in sales brochures of Osborne Industries, Inc., a copy of which is included in my disclosure statement and are incorporated herein by reference.
The original STANFIELD.TM. heat pads were and continue to be an acceptable product. However, they are costly to manufacture, impose high purchase, high operating costs, and can be improved through a better component design, shape and surface pattern which drains water, urine and other liquids from the surface.